Yet another strike against pre-forward pass goalies...
I'm going to quote the second again, but change the bold (which I assume you added)-
"There are more good goalies today than ever before," said Les. "They outclass the old timers because they have more chance to play, the modern rules favor them and they have better equipment."
Here we have a prime example of why we take era into account and not just who stopped pucks the best- Patrick gives three reasons why the newer goalies outclass the older ones, and they are all era related reasons- more practice, more favorable rules, and better equipment. Those are very much era-dependent causes.
Later goalies may have been "better" goalies, but that doesn't mean they were "greater".
Not just bad skaters and poor stickhandlers were stuck back in net in the past, but just the smallest guys that couldn't hack it at other positions suggested by a 1947 Hockey News
This seems like working from a conclusion and working backwards- plenty of the really early guys were large. Billy Nicholson, who played before the Vezina time period (and actually overlapped) was reportedly up to 270 lbs. Paddy Moran was 5'11". Those are big men for that time period.
And again- we really think all the hockey leftovers just ended up in goal for... how many years? That the position was the Vincent Benedict, while the skaters were the Julius Benedict (from Twins)? I don't know, it seems were that
nobody would realize that having the best players possible at each position mattered.
In 1964, the HHOF committee was instructed to find players to induct up to 1939. They only agreed on one Babe Siebert.
THN Jul 1 1964 -
Under the regulations, the selection committee was at first empowered to choose only players up to 1939 but Siebert was the only one approved among several nominations. Durnan, Stewart and Bentley were picked from the 1939-45 period.
Honorable mention among players went to Harry Oliver, Marty Barry. Red Horner, Hugh Aird, Pit Lepine and Alex Irvin.
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Interesting insight about guys who just missed the cut. This means that a committee specifically asked to find players to induct from before 1939 explicitly passed on and didn't get close on Worters or Benedict or Holmes, among others.
How many of those on the committee would have been able to watch the pre-1939 players? What were the potential biases of the committee in terms of prior positions, teams affiliated with, etc? Were there any personal issues?
Without more fidelity into those questions, I don't know how seriously we should take the results of that committee. And, again- it is the Hall of Fame, who has not always been known to make the best decisions.